About Me

Thursday, 4 June 2015

Rights Of Way

When the
fictional poor Billy Budd, see Wikipedia, was pressed for the Royal Navy in
1797 the merchant vessel he left was the "Rights Of Man", which
caused him to be suspect. It is not a
happy story and nor does it have a happy ending.

A key theme of
the original novella and later dramas, stage, film and opera, is what Rights
are and what we understand about them and how they might be applied. What you start with is not what you get. What you think are Rights is not the same as
others think.

The British
Library has an exhibition on Magna Carta as it is now 800 years since it was
signed in 1215 at Runnymede between King John and the Barons. Along with this are lectures. Recently Thomas Asbridge talked about the
role of William the Marshal but an earlier one is of interest.

What exactly does it
say is the theme of the talk by Professor Sumption who analyses the content
and what has been claimed in later years to be found in the document, here in
PDF. The item is longish but quite
clear. Also, it shows that much of what
we believe derives from it simply is not the case.

The question
of what are "Rights", who might enjoy them, to what purpose and why
has been with us since 1215 and is still a major feature of our politics. The latest Human Rights Act is just another
crossroads on a long and complicated journey.

Whether this
time, like other times in the past, a wrong turning has been taken is going to
be a source of serious dispute and trouble.